SONA-SYSTEMS INFORMATION
For Instructors
Sona-Systems Account:
All psychology instructors (any instructor teaching a psychology course at Daemen) will be given an account
on the sona-systems website: https://daemenpsychology.sona-systems.com. You will only need to use this
account for 3 main reasons: (1) to run research participation credit reports at the end of the semester to
determine how many credits your students have earned, (2) to keep track of which students have added your
course to their Sona profile (students will not be able to allocate any earned credits to your course unless they
add the course to their profile), and (3) to log any research alternative assignments that students may
complete throughout the semester (alternative assignments are important to log on the sona-system website
so that students can keep track of all credits they have earned).
Logging In to Your Account:
The login page can be found at https://daemenpsychology.sona-systems.com.
Username: Your instructor account username is the first part of your Daemen email address (which usually
consists of your first initial and last name) followed by “_instructor”. For example, if a person’s email
address is [email protected], the username would be jdoe_instructor.
Password: You will be given a temporary password that will be emailed to you once your account has been
created. Once you login to the system for the first time, you should change your password to something you
can easily remember. You can change your password by clicking on the “My Profile” link on the menu bar at
the top of the main menu screen. This link will also allow you to change your email if you wish.
After logging in, you will see the main menu pictured below:
Adding Alternative Assignment Credit:
To grant alternative assignment credit (referred to by the system as “non-study credit”), either click the
“Course Reports” option on the menu bar at the top of the screen on the main page or click on “Generate
course credit reports” under the “Course Reports” section of the main page. This will take you to a list of the
psychology courses that you teach. Pictured below, the Demo Instructor is listed as teaching two courses
(Demo Course 1 and Demo Course 2).
Select the “All Participants (Students)” option under the course of the student for which you are granting
credit. This will bring you to a list of the students who have indicated that they are enrolled in your course. If
you do not see the specific student you are looking for, then the student has not added your course to their
profile. In order for you to add credit, the student must log in to the sona-systems website and edit their
course selection by clicking on the “My Profile” option on the menu bar at the top of the screen on their
menu page. If they are unsure of their login details or how to edit their courses, have them contact the system
administrator ([email protected]).
Next, find the student for which you would like to grant credit. Select the “Grant Credit” option. This will
allow you to enter the credits that correspond to the number of alternative assignments the student has
completed. There will also be a field for you to provide comments indicating what the credits correspond to.
Running End of Semester Credit Reports:
To see which students in your courses have earned credit (either through research study participation or
through alternative non-study assignments that you would have added yourself), either click the “Course
Reports” option on the menu bar at the top of the screen on the main page or click on “Generate course credit
reports” under the “Course Reports” section of the main page. This will take you to a list of the psychology
courses that you teach. Pictured below, the Demo Instructor is listed as teaching two courses (Demo Course
1 and Demo Course 2).
Select the “All Participants (Students)” option under the course for which you want to run the credit report.
This will bring you to a list of the students who have indicated that they are enrolled in that course. If you do
not see the specific student you are looking for, then the student has not logged in or has not added your
course to their profile. The “Credits Earned for Course” column indicates how many research credits the
student has allocated specifically to your course. Please keep in mind that students are allowed to earn 4
extra credits per psychology course. Thus, if the student is enrolled in multiple psychology courses, the
“Overall Credits Earned” column may be different from the “Credits Earned for Course” column that you
will use. Also, students are only allowed to allocate a maximum of 4 credits to each psychology course, so if
they have allocated more than 4 research credits to your course (i.e., if the “Credits Earned for Course”
column is greater than 4), only 4 extra credit points should be added to their grade. Students will be
prompted several times throughout the semester to make sure that they assign credits to the courses of their
choosing. Thus, if a student has a zero under the “Credits Earned for Course” column or is not on the list for
your course, you should assume they have not chosen to allocate any research credits to your course or have
not participated in any studies.
At the bottom of the “Credit Completion Report” screen for each course is the option to print or download
the report to a .csv file as you see fit.
Questions or Comments:
Please contact the sona-systems site administrator ([email protected]).